


I, The Robot

by Scented_Candle



Category: Mass Effect, Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: War for Cybertron
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-24
Updated: 2013-11-24
Packaged: 2018-01-02 12:26:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1056747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scented_Candle/pseuds/Scented_Candle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When an important relic goes missing after Shepard's trip into an alien aircraft, she's giving the reluctant job of helping Beamer find it, but nothing's ever easy when you're working for Cerberus and they are the ones that took it.</p><p>...</p><p>Beamer had never seen a human quite like Shepard before, no human had accepted the merging of synthetic parts to their organic, neither had she seen an organic created intelligence like the geth or interacted with one. Sure, there was the vehicons that patrolled Cybertron on occasion but they weren't organic created; but Legion, no, he was something else. Something fresh, something...fun to explore.</p><p>(Starts off during Mass Effect 2, happens after Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What Lies Asleep

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't actually written a Mass Effect story before and after finishing the game, I had the urge to write a crossover of the two worlds, and on top of that, the characters may be a little out of character, but I hope not by much. Beamer is my OC, but the rest are real character unless I mention otherwise. Excuse any errors. This is a Legion/Beamer story... to some extent.

Shepard crept through the abandoned station, noting the way the lights flicked ominously on the walls, doors clicked and hissed open as she and her squad passed the motion sensors and the broken, static-laced voices of scientists playing on recorded logs. As the Illusive Man had mentioned, this research station had long been abandoned, further evidence lay on the metal floor that was covered in the red soil of the planet which had crept into the hallways and cracks from the doors that lay open to the world.

Garrus and Mordin followed behind loyally, occasionally stopping on behalf of Mordin’s curious nature, to listen to a recording or read some notes on a pad. 

“What do you think the Illusive Man was doing here?” Shepard asked Mordin, noticing that no bodies, or vaguely human or organic presence apart from the long gone scientists ever resided here. 

Mordin read over another series of notes, all scientific mumbo-jumbo that Shepard wouldn't understand unless she put her mind to it, and looked at the Commander with fleeting eyes that shot straight back to the screen. “Something large. Alien, not Citadel class specie. New specie? No, notes mention earlier contact. First contact on Earth.”

Shepard’s brow rose and then furrowed in question. Garrus, who had wondered away while Mordin and Shepard searched another lab, stopped and stared at a large door, its lock blinking the damaged colour of orange. Glancing over his shoulder at the other two, he pressed his hand against it and was rewarded when it hissed open and stopped mid-way, the dented metal not able to slide into its hiding place. 

He was delighted... no, that was probably not the right word to describe his victory and horror when something large revealed itself in a series of bright spotlights that narrowed in on the structure. His mandibles fell slack for a moment in shock before he turned back to Shepard and their Salarian scientist.

“I think I found what they were doing here.” 

Shepard was at his side at once and walking towards the giant structure inside the base. Mordin followed quickly, muttering as he passed Garrus, “Seems station was built around alien structure.”

Shepard nodded and readied her weapon, something inside her telling her that whatever this structure was had something just as alien waiting for them. “Whatever the Illusive Man wants must be in there.” The doors of the structure looked to have been pried open and held open by machinery the scientist had built, and with a closer inspection, it seemed that even though the machines looked perfectly stable and held the doors open with no problem. The slight tilt of its base suggested otherwise and Shepard made to avoid both machines that would hold the door open to them. 

Mordin once again stopped to type at a computer console outside the structure, easily bypassing any security firewalls, they all watched as lights within the structure turned on to reveal a vast hallway, with a curved, oval shaped hallway and flat pathway. The structure seemed to come to life after, blue lights brightened the already bright hallway, a solid, continuous strip of light hugging both top halves of the hallway roof, before dispersing down two hallways. 

Shepard nodded at Mordin before starting her journey inside, finally taking notice of the two thrusters on either sides of the ship. “It’s a ship.”

Garrus made an affirmative noise. “Think its Reaper tech?”

“No, definitely not Reaper. Maybe Collector.” Shepard answered, but then shook her head again at her own claim. “No, can’t be that either. Geth?”

They continued the guessing game to fill the eerie silence of the ship that hummed with mechanical life and became more astute the further they continued down the corridor, backing guesses then dismissing them when something revealed itself to be neither Geth, Reaper or Collector. They reached the apex in the corridor, one leading further into the bowels of the ship and the other towards the helm. Both where light and looked like nothing ever resided within it, but the ship was too large to fully explore at the time and Shepard contacted EDI and Joker. 

“I need a map of the ship we’re inside.”

EDI replied, sending the map and even a highlighted path for Shepard and her squad to take. “I have found a large collection of Cerberus tech outside a closed door of the ship. It seems that they could not enter it before the station was abandoned.”

Shepard thanked their ships AI and followed the marked path, logging to memory certain doors and paths they passed just in case something went wrong. More than once did she almost stop her squad when an open door revealed even more alien tech, fighting back the immense waves of curiosity within her to explore every inch of whatever the heck this ship belonged too. 

It was only when they were two thirds of the way to their destination that Shepard stopped and eyed both rooms on either side of the corridor. Two giant chairs, with even bigger mechanisms connected sat, pointing to the front of the ship but tilted up at a slight angle. 

“Are those-?” Garrus began, before Shepard hummed in agreement, suddenly feeling as though such an agreement would be signing a contract with death.

“Those are mounted torrents.”

The torrents sat on a platform one that looked like it could rise up and pass through the similar shaped ceiling doors. 

“Shepard, I sure hope you brought your grenade launcher.” Garrus attempted at humour, but it fell on deaf ears when the realisation that whatever they could find in this ship wad bigger and no doubt capable of squishing them.

They continued down their given path, encountering two more pairs of mounted torrent rooms before they turned left and stopped when a quickly dispatched and poorly deconstructed Cerberus lab came into view. Computers and files were knocked off their desks and paper lay askew on the floor. The door that they needed to get through lay through the discarded mess of the temporary lab, firmly shut while two machines similar to the ones that held the hatch open on the outside lay on their side, hooks laying separate from the actual machine, which had fallen over in strain and lifted part of the solid, metal floor with it. 

“Suggest we find alternate path. Doors, unbreachable. Cannot hack open.” Mordin informed, walking past Shepard to view the open floor reveal by the fallen machines. Shepard joined him, glancing at the hole in the floor that was illuminated by faint glowing blue lines. 

She nodded and jumped down, grunting when she realised the fall wasn’t as deep as she thought, but then realized that the space they would have to crawl through was tight and lined with several pipes and lines, some looking rubbery, others metallic and then the strangely, almost translucent ones that glowed a bright blue. 

Mordin followed, his flexibility and smaller frame making the feat to crawl through the tight space much easier, but Garrus could be heard from a mile away, cursing and mumbling, some of the words Shepard couldn't even translate, as his armour clanked against the walls and pipes as he struggled his way through the space. 

They finally reached a slighter bigger area, a loose slab of metal offering an exit that no doubt opened to the room above. Shepard pushed, with Garrus’ help, and finally lifted and slid the metal grate open and began climbing out. She helped Garrus out as Mordin scanned the room, noticing that it was dimly lit by the same blue lights as in the hallways before. 

But it wasn’t the lights that gained his attention so wholly, but the metal berth that housed something as big as it was. Lying across, and from this angle he could only see the tops of pointed angles but no doubt vaguely robotic figure. He didn’t even manage to get Shepard’s attention before something, not the giant robot on the metal slab, whirred to life and red eyes zeroed in on the three of them. Whatever it was stood from its place against the wall and stepped towards them, slowly stepping into the dim light revealing a huge robotic figure, taller than any Atlas and Geth Prime that they had ever faced, but still smaller than the figure on the metal bed. 

It was then, Mordin recognised the bodies of Cerberus troops that littered the room and when Shepard finally seemed to unfreeze from her momentary pause, she let her assault rifle litter the robot with several bullets. Garrus and Mordin did the same, diving towards the non-existent cover offered to them.

The robot kept walking towards them, red eyes speaking many deadly truths as it watched them and their mad scramble to find cover. It stopped, several meters from them, seemingly unaffected by the barrage of bullets but Shepard could see the small dents beginning to appear on its surface at the growing number of connecting bullets. It rose, what used to be its arm but now a deadly looking cannon, and pointed it towards them. 

And then it spoke, voice deep and adding all the more tension into the awaiting battle zone.

“Intruder alert. Hostile targets will be engaged.”

And with those threatening, mechanical words, it fired. Straight towards the group of three who froze and then dove to avoid a direct hit. 

It stepped forward again and repeated. “Intruder alert. Hostile targets will be eliminated.”

And for all Shepard was worth, she hoped that this thing would fall before any of her team-mates did.


	2. Easy turned Hard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I'm not too out of character, but it's been a while since I've done anything Transformers related.

Shepard was stuck running around the room, dodging deadly bullets that the robot fired at them every time it found aim. But three moving targets and only one weapon seemed to put the robot at a disadvantage as Garrus, Mordin and Shepard pelted the robot with bullets whenever they could. It was defter than its size originally implied and managed to dodge some deadly bullets fired towards it with a grace than even the Geth could not obtain. 

Shepard vaguely heard the increase of humming in the room and the new whirring, but payed little to no attention to it as the robot shooting at them seemed to furiously click, buzz and whir while it chased Mordin around the room. 

An echoing reply of clicks and whirrs stopped all fire as the robot froze and fell still, standing upright and rigid, its arms back and weapon gone. It turned and red eyes looked at the figure that was now sitting upright on the metal slab, staring at the battle scene before them with narrowed purple eyes. 

Garrus and Mordin joined Shepard’s side, and the giant figure watched them all as it slide off the metal surface and stood just a few feet taller than the robot that had been attacking them. It clicked and then pointed to the place the robot came from and without further noise from the red eyes robot it moved and leaned back inside a pod, red eyes dimming again. 

The giant robot stood and stared down at them before looking down at the floor riddled with Cerberus troops and then back at them. Shepard took this time to take in the figure, noticing that it was structured with a distinctively feminine shape, but with two, upward curving triangles that looked to be wings on its back and two pointed spikes protruding from its head. Five fingered hands and then a pointed foot that stood on a slight heel was what made up the peach and black robot. 

The silence between them was tense and each party waited for the other to speak first. The silence was broken by a voice, not anyone’s voice in the room, but a voice that seemed to echo throughout the whole ship. 

“This is Ratchet, Chief Medical Officer at Kaon Medical Bay, I am reporting the end of the War between Decepticons and Autobots. Life has restored to Cybertron. With the sacrifice of Optimus Prime’s life and the defection of Decepticon leader, Megatron, on behalf of the New Cybertronian world, I welcome all non-hostile Cybertronian’s to join us at Kaon City.” The robot before them seemed to freeze upon hearing the words and news of this ‘Ratchet’, eyes dimming and them lighting up brightly a few times as the message continued with its final words. “Come back home.”

This time, the silence that followed wasn’t tense, instead full of something that Shepard didn’t wish to acknowledge. They all watched as the robot turned from them and walked to the door, hand waving over a pad on the left side of the door and watched as it hissed open. The figure turned to them, looked them over and sighed. 

“You may want to get off this ship. I am leaving this planet to return home.” Its voice was strangely lacking the automated and emotionless tone all robots had, but then again, after hearing the message from Ratchet whose own voice was filled with emotion, it didn’t come as that big of a surprise to Shepard, she watched the figure for a moment before giving chase. 

“What do you mean, ‘leaving this planet’, this ship has been dormant for a long time.” Shepard was struggling to keep up with the robots long strides, but when it turned and grabbed her and then Mordin and Garrus in its two hands, Shepard did everything in her power to get rid of the hold the robot had on her, feeling more than uncomfortable towards its sudden manhandling of her and her squad. 

“Be still! I am getting you off my ship so I can leave without you organics.” It bit out, frustration lacing its voice. 

Shepard glared at the robot from her position, waist firmly held by the figure, not tight enough to be cause pain, but enough to cause discomfort. She glanced at Garrus and Mordin who seemed to struggle more with the close proximity of each other than the hold the robot had on them. “You are inside a research station! How do you expect to get off?”

The robot stilled for a moment before continuing and arriving at the entrance hallway that Shepard had begun much quicker than she had expected. The robot looked down at her and shook its head. “Frag it all.” It continued towards the helm, ignoring Shepard who told it that they had passed the exit. She stopped at a door, and transferring Shepard into her other hand, she swiped at the pad again and the door opened to reveal a helm, filled with more complicated buttons, controls and screens. 

Large windows from the floor to the ceiling revealed the inside of the station, still light with the spotlights focused on the ship. The robot deposited Shepard and her squad on a raised platform that she began typing at, hand rising to press and key in a code of sorts onto the screen. 

That moment, the ship came to life, a deeper hum and shutter echoed throughout the whole ship before it beeped once, twice and then filled with the noise of systems coming back online. The robot glanced at them and gave them a smile, something that Shepard never expected a robot to do and pressed two fingers against its temple. 

“This is your Captain Beamer speaking. Prepare for departure in three breems. All systems are functioning at full capacity. Any stasis sick bots, please report to the med-bay for analysis. We are setting a course for Cybertron.” It was then that Shepard learnt several things at once. One, the robot was a Captain, and it had a name. Two, the sudden rising of noise and metal on metal suggested that Beamer wasn’t the only robot on the ship and three, Shepard and her squad were going on a ride with them too.

The door hissed open and they all turned to stare at the robot that stood even taller than the peach coloured one. “This just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?” Garrus finally quipped, gaining the attention of the newcomer, who raised it cannons in response. 

“Organics!” It hissed and prepared to fire, seemingly not to notice that they were perched on the controls of the ship. 

“Onslaught, lower your weapons!” She commanded, placing a hand and forcing the hand turned cannon down. 

He glared at Shepard with deadly red eyes, turning to face the female with a serious expression. “What’s going on? What are those doing on board?” Shepard stood tall and walked to the middle of the computer platform, if the robot fired, at least it would damage the ship as a repercussion. 

Beamer stood still for a moment, as though processing something and then turned around and pressed a few more buttons until the same message they heard from ‘Ratchet’ echoed throughout the entire ship. Onslaught listened carefully, no longer paying attention to Shepard, Mordin and Garrus, but instead to the words that seemed to hold more meaning than anything in the entire galaxy. The moment the message finished, he turned to Beamer. 

“Is it true?” He demanded, looking as though he would tear her apart if it were false.

Shaking her head, she glanced over the systems diagnostics and pressed a button that started powering the engines. “No, I… the autobots wouldn’t do something like that. Have Vortex check the other channels though, maybe the other decepticons managed to get a message out or something.”

Nodding he turned to do as was told at another console before turning back and pointing at Shepard, “What are you going to do with them? If it’s true, then I don’t think they would let you keep pets.”

Shepard gawked, “You can’t keep us as pets.” She straightened herself and her face then, “When you get off this station, I want you to drop us off fifty clicks from here.”

Beamer eyed Shepard and nodded, “Alright.”

\---

Joker didn’t know what to expect from Shepard when she transmitted a live feed of the room they had found that giant robot in before getting cut off. When he noticed the rumbling of the station and the thundering sound of powerful engines, he didn’t expect the building to suddenly break apart as something large emerged from it, taking roof, dirt and whatever was left of the station with in in pieces.

Dwarfing the Normandy, the alien ship rose into the planet’s atmosphere, steadily rising on thrusters that burned bright blue. Joker quickly set to connecting through to Shepard, wondering what the hell was going on when the alien ship all but stopped to hover in the air, miles from the Normandy, but still in clear sight. 

“Ah, Commander, we’ve got an alien ship hovering just over what’s left of the station.” He hoped for an answer, and sighed in relief when Shepard answered. 

“Yes, that’s us. It’s friendly.”

Another sigh of relief followed, because even with all of the SSV Normandy SR-2 upgrades, that ship looked near impenetrable and indestructible. Joker slowly set a course towards the ship, wondering if Shepard would be able to stop them if they decided to blow the Normandy to hell.

\---

Shepard glanced at Beamer who was watching them with curious eyes. “You have a ship?”

Shepard nodded, “The Normandy, it’s going to pick up us from the location you drop us at.”

Beamer glanced at Onslaught, who was busy communicating with Vortex and then at the door when it slid open to reveal another helm worker, nodded at the bot, she turned back to the organics. “This ship is able to connect with yours. Would that not make it easier?”

Shepard nodded, “Yes.”

Beamer turned, pressed at the controls again and the Normandy appeared as a holoform, floating by the screen and then an orange light, zooming into the airlock. “I will connect to your ships communication, you will tell them of your plans.”

She did so easily, connecting to the frequency that Shepard has just communicated through and watched as it lit up before flashing red. Joker’s voice followed in mild panic from her onmi-tool. 

“Ah, Commander, the ship is doing something to the communication frequency!”

Shepard grinned slightly, only just and then straightened her features out, “Yeah, patch through to it. We need an airlock.”

Joker grumbled through the link, nothing Shepard could make out and before they knew it, the ship the robots were in connected through to the Normandy and Joker’s mumbling was amplified enough to be heard throughout the entire room. Something about ‘useless AI’s’, and ‘giant alien ships’ came through before Beamer lowered the volume and glanced at Shepard with a humorous tilt of her eyes. 

“I believe that we have successfully opened a comm-link.”

Joker felt silent when he heard the voice of some-one unknown through the communication link and almost started cursing again when Garrus called back at him, “Anything you want to say, Joker? I’m not sure we heard the part about ‘giant robots’ yet.”

“Oh, ha ha, Vakarian. Real funny.” Joker sassed before developing some sort of professionalism. “We’re clear for an airlock connection; just need the co-ordinates of it on the ship.”

“I’ve sent you the layout of the Galvantis, and pinpointed the port-side airlock.” Beamer replied, sending said data to the Normandy’s systems. 

“Commander, we are in position for an airlock.” EDI’s voice penetrated the brief silence and Beamer turned to the other helm worker, Shepard watched as the Normandy displayed itself on the holoform projection again, beside the giant alien ship, looking like a dwarf planet beside Jupiter, Shepard shook her head at the horrible comparison and watched. 

“Barricade, prepare to airlock with the Normandy, we’re transporting organics to it.”

Barricade turned and Shepard blinked when all four of its eyes locked onto her. “Couldn’t care less, Captain. As long as their off the ship.”

Rolling her eyes the Captain turned back to Shepard and her quiet squad and opened a palm toward them. “Get on, it’s a long walk to the airlock.”

Shepard half wanted to take on the offer to walk instead of being carried again, but decided that the quicker they were off this ship, the better. Climbing on, she grabbed onto the thumb of Beamer’s hand and waited for Mordin to climb up as well, Garrus following. Beamer was quick to walk out of the room and slide open a door just to the left of the room, entering another hallway that bustled with more huge robots, some standing even larger than Onslaught and thus much taller than Beamer. 

Shepard stared at them all, taking in their frames and the way they moved with more fluidness than the Geth did. The sudden notion that these robots may not be as synthetic as she had thought before occurred to her, and the sudden realization that they were more humane finally connected in her mind when one shot her the most disgusted stare while another grunted when Beamer passed by. Mordin was silent throughout the whole ordeal, eyes flittering over every robot they passed, obviously taking in as much as Shepard was.

Another open door and another shorter hallway, they stopped at a desk where another robot sat, pressing buttons that controlled the airlock shaft which slowly connected to the Normandy’s own airlock. The ship gave a small shake as it connected and the light above the door blinked green before opening to reveal a shaft that decreased in side to connect with the Normandy’s decontamination room.

Lowering Shepard, Mordin and Garrus to the floor, Beamer crouched down to their level. “Well, there is my stop. It was an interesting experience to have you aboard the Galvantis.”

Shepard agreed, “I didn’t exactly expect this when I came aboard, but it’s not the weirdest thing I’ve seen.”

Smiling lightly, Beamer stood and waved a hand at them. “You might want to get back before your pilot decides to close the doors.”

Shepard nodded before turning and beginning the short walk towards the airlock shaft and began walking down it, closer towards the Normandy. She briefly heard the door hiss open from the room and didn’t hear what the newcomer said, only saw and felt the shaft suddenly vibrate and shut right in front of them, blocking their path back to the Normandy with a solid wall of metal.

She turned, drawing her weapon, knowing that the easy path off was too good to be true and met the narrowed purple eyes of the robot captain called Beamer, the two other robots standing behind her, weapons drawn and already pointing at them. 

“I believe you have something that doesn’t belong to you.” Was all she said before her hand transformed into a weapon and pointed threateningly towards Shepard, the other beckoning her back towards the suddenly hostile ship.


	3. From Battlefield to Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beamer finally rediscovers the wonders of Cybertron... and remembers just how it fell apart before her optics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do excuse any inaccuracies about Cybertron, the bots and cons (which will now be referred to as bots, not in the short term for Autobots, but instead robots), and the characters themselves. I've mentioned that I haven't actually written a Mass Effect story before, and molding it with the Transformers Verse is a bit more difficult than I imagined, but I'm getting there.

Beamer glowered down at the three organics that were standing on the desk in her office, tense and agitated by the removal of their weapons via magnetics; they were sitting bots in a scraplet nest. Onslaught, her second, was pulling up the information on the relic that was missing. An ancient power source capable of fuelling an entire Carrier Ship or power thousands of weapons was missing from its compartment. 

Doors had been blown open, and the defence-drones had been destroyed by organic weapons. Onslaught then turned again, “One defence-drone is missing along with a deactivated decepticon.”

“Slag!” Beamer cursed, throwing the data-pad she had in her hands at the wall. She turned to Shepard, glaring down at her fiercely. “So, what you mean to say, is that you don’t have the Relic and that it’s been taken by a pro-human group to a location no-one can find?”

Shepard nodded, “This ship was originally housed in a Cerberus lab. My best guess is that Cerberus now has your relic and your friends.”

“Oh, this is just magnificent! I get charged with one task and I can’t even do that without having it taken from right under my nose!” Beamer once again ignored the three organics who watched in fascination as the giant, female robot continued her temper tantrum, cursing up a storm using words their devices couldn’t translate but her tone did. 

Onslaught shook his helm and in turn sent a comm-link to Barricade to request a space-bridge to Cybertron, after that was done he turned his attention back to the rampaging femme and raised a brow when he noticed her berating a defence-drone. Having never had a femme lead him before, he hadn’t expected Beamer to prove her worth through her rage induced battle techniques and clever thinking during flight that had saved them multiple times, and he knew that given her state right now that in a few moments she would resort to assigning the most ridiculous jobs to any ‘con that passed as an act out of anger. 

“Captain, I have requested that Barricade ask for a Space Bridge to Kaon Airspace. I suggest you get these…” He glanced at the three strange organics, recognizing the human easily but not able to understand what the other two were. Though his scanners suggested that one was vaguely avian, and the other slightly amphibian. But that was as close as his suggestions got. “…Organics, back to their ships.”

Beamer turned to them, venting in air to help cool down her overheated systems. She blinked and then rubbed her temples in frustration. “You are going to confront more Cerberus troops in the future, yes?” 

Shepard nodded, “When you have two aboard the ship and owe your life to the Illusive Man, you tend to see a lot of them around.”

Deciding not to question the fact that she has two Cerberus members on board, Beamer speaks. “I want you to come to Cybertron with me so we can figure out how we can retrieve this Relic again.” She had picked up her data-pad and selected a clear image of a cylindrical metal rod, with a metal band around the middle with three smaller, pointed cylinders off its sides that broke once again into three spikes. 

Shepard frowned, “You want me to go to Cybertron with you?” The new name sounded funny on her lips, but she had bigger problems than a strange new word at the moment.

Beamer nodded, “So far, you are the only link I have to Cerberus and also the quickest. This relic is powerful, and I won’t blame humanities curiosity for accidently discovering its power.”

Shepard continued to purse her lips together though, she was pressed for time as it was with the Collector threat hanging above their heads, and another task was not something she wanted to accept. But the Illusive man had managed to piss off a group of twenty foot robots, something Shepard knew he was fully capable of, and had leave her with the task of cleaning it up. 

“I’m don’t have the time to race around the galaxy. I could send you the co-ordinates of any Cerberus labs I-“ 

Beamer cut her off, “Cybertronian technology allows for easy space travel. We are organising a Space Bridge into Kaon Air and it shouldn’t take any longer than a few minutes at best to get permission.”

“Space Bridge technology not recorded in Citadel Database.” Mordin added, baiting Beamer into explaining what they were heading into.

Beamer glanced at the fellow organic in slight curiosity and answered. “Space Bridging is when a bridge in locations is opened to allow for easy travel from one spot to another. You could call it a ‘portal’.”

Shepard nodded, “Then how do I know it won’t damage my ship when we go through it?” She could feel the stares of her squad on her back, asking her if she really was thinking about going to a new planet filled with more robots five times their size. 

“It’s a completely harmless way of travelling, though it does make organics feel slightly nauseous the first time around. No harm will come to your ship or your crew.” Beamer stated, than listened when Onslaught called for her. 

“Barricade has gained confirmation from Kaon Air, they will send a ground bridge in three minutes.”

“Good, get the crew ready for landing then.” Beamer turned back to Shepard. “It is still your choice, but it will make my hunt for Cerberus much easier if you were to come. I will take you back to the airlock and you will tell your pilot of the Space Bridge that will open in three minutes time ahead of us.” Beamer offered her open palms to them again and held them steady when Shepard, Garrus and Mordin climbed on. “I will unlock the airlock after that and you will follow on after us if you want to come, but I will also maintain a comm-link with you for safety reasons.”

They arrived, after a short walk from Beamer’s office at the airlock bay again and Beamer placed them on the ground and kneeled in front of them. “Cybertron is not fully adapted to organic life, but air-filters have been working for some time now, if I’ve read correctly. It will be safe for you to breathe without any masks.”

Shepard nodded, “I will go tell Joker of the plan.” And with that, she turned and walked back down the airlock, picking up her weapons from the raised platform that stood just above her hip and strapped them onto herself. She walked down the airlock, half expecting it to shut down again and close in front of her, but it didn’t and she and her squad stood in the decontamination room, awkward silence following after them. 

“Well, giant alien robots. Who would have thought we’d meet those?” Garrus said, just as the doors to the helm opened. 

Joker turned in his seat, looking half panicked and half relieved to see them. “Commander! The ship is trying to communicate with us again.”

Shepard nodded, “Let them through. And prepare for a Mass Relay procedure.”

Joker glanced at her, looking at her as though she’d completely lost it. “Um, Commander. We aren’t near any Mass Relays.”

Garrus clapped him on the shoulder. “No, but we’re about to be near something just like it.”

Joker glanced at Shepard for confirmation, and when she nodded, he connected to the ship and started up for a Mass Relay jump.

“Shepard, my crew is ready for the Space Bridge. I assume you are getting ready for yours?” Beamer’s voice came from all around them in the cockpit. 

“Yes,” Shepard turned to EDI. “EDI, inform the crew that we are something akin to a Mass Relay, and they should prepare for any side effects.”

Joker tensed, finally noticing the growing expanse of energy in front of them that erupted into a large green, swirling portal. “What the hell is that?”

Shepard stared at it as well in wonder, watching the scanners as the Galvantis drifted towards it. “Commander, follow behind us. The bridge will stay open until you pass, but don’t take too long.”

Shepard watched as the large ship drifted into the green portal before disappearing from sight. Nothing on the scanners suggested that it was ever there as all energy signatures disappeared after it. She turned to Joker, “Set a course into that.”

Joker blanched and then did as told, not liking the idea in the slightest. “What’s on the other side?”

Shepard bit her lip, hand grasping at Joker’s head rest as they neared the portal. “I have no idea.”

…

Beamer sighed in relief when the ever so familiar sight of Cybertron appeared before them, closing in as the ship casually entered the landing zone, following the directions of flier bots into the correct landing section. Barricade and Onslaught stood beside her, staring at the sight they never thought they would ever see again, Cybertron was living, and better yet. 

It was thriving. 

The very fact that other bots had come to direct their ship onto the landing pad and the small group of mechs that bustled around the landing pad, awaiting the moment to hook the ship to the pad was reassurance enough that Cybertron was inhabitant. 

But the best part? Beamer was almost brought to tears when her in depth scanners picked up large amounts of energon readings from beneath the surface of Cybertron and then narrowed in on the bright and living core of their planet. There was no better image or reading than seeing energon constantly being created by what many assumed was Primus himself in Cybertron’s core.

The small echoing tone from her console requested her to open a comm-link, and she did, leaning down to answer the call. “This is Smokescreen speaking, please identify the number of mechs and femmes on board.”

“Thirteen mechs and three femmes,” Oh, how could she forget about MedKip, their trusted, over friendly femme medic and Sliver, a femme grounder who operated the torrents like no-one else could. “And seven defence-drones.” Another buzzing comm-link request had her quickly finishing off her statement, “Oh, and there is another ship that followed us here. They are allies and friendlies; organics on board. I will patch you through to them, Smokescreen.”

Doing just that, she turned to the two mechs and nodded, “Well, looks like we’re back home.” Suddenly, she didn’t want to return back… or step back outside. Having spent a good period of her life living off world, in a ship filled with eighteen bots she knew inside and out, to be introduced to a whole colony of them made her systems jumpstart and her fans to switch on to cool her rising temperature.

She nodded mutely at Onslaught’s request to allow airlock access and exit of the crew and she watched, blankly, as her crew slowly exited the ship they spent just as long as she did on. Vortex… MedKip… Sliver… and then Barricade, they all went off one by one, casting a glance, nod or smile towards her. Until, all that was left on the ship aside from her was the defence-drones and Onslaught. 

Onslaught approached her, slowly putting a hand on her shoulder and pulling her along with him, around the corner and towards the exit of the ship, coming to a halt when the pressure increased on Beamer’s part. It was Beamer who had locked her legs in place, just feet from the exit and stared. 

She stared and stared, optics shining, zooming and focusing on the sight, taking in the sight of what she could from her place, the airlocks frame providing a picture framed scene of Cybertron alive and functioning. The fear returned tenfold as dark thoughts began to rise from the depths of her mind. Distant memories of watching Cybertron burn as she left it on the Galvantis, of watching Metroplax fall after successfully fuelling The Ark for its journey, and of witnessing the hundreds of lives, because by the time they evacuated there wasn’t many left to save, reach out in hopes of catching them before they escaped to join. 

She was afraid that if she exited, this small framed glance of Cybertron she had right now, would change to reveal a dead wasteland, littered with mechs, femmes and sparklings. 

Onslaught took both her shoulders now, ignoring the inquiries of the bots outside waiting to shut down the ship of her health, and shook her hard, rattling her systems and joints until she snapped back in defence when a painful jolt in her neck caught her attention. Throwing both of Onslaught’s arms of her shoulder, she cast him a look somewhere between a glare and thank and marched out before her nerves could freeze her again.

And the moment she stepped foot outside the ship she gasped at the sheer size of what Kaon had become. Once a city filled with the low class battle hardened mechs and femmes and gladiators, now was a thriving city of all bots, who no longer avoided bots of different status, in fact, most seemed to not even know of the boundaries that once lay between them all. 

Beamer continued to walk, taking in the sight of Kaon and drinking in all the sounds of life outside a battlefield. Listening to the orders being thrown out to secure her ship and then the hum of approaching engines that, when she looked, signified Shepard had decided to follow and was now being herded onto another landing pad, three landing navigator mechs calling out to each other as the ship slowed and hovered down closer to the ground.

She walked to Shepard’s ship, stopping several meters away and watching as the mechs secured the ship and connected the airlock to a raised platform which slide open to reveal stairs. She watched and waited as the airlock slowly opened revealing stomach, torso and then head of Shepard, who looked just as struck by the sight of a sentient robotic civilisation as Beamer did. 

Finally, they met eyes and Beamer grinned, for the moment forgetting why she had dragged the human along and greeted the human. “Welcome to Cybertron, Commander Shepard.”


	4. From Large to Small

Shepard stood on the platform, her squad behind her, silent in curious wonder at the world before them. This world, having not been registered on any Citadel, Alliance or even Cerberus servers, housed a species that Shepard found almost difficult not to find. And having been in this section of the system she couldn’t begin to fathom how she had missed this place. 

Floating several light years away from the Sol System, from what EDI had told her, surrounded by two moons and a large distant star the metal surface covered in lines, markings and robots. Dozens of giant robots, Cybertronians, she corrected herself watching them walk and work around the area, in the distance she could see shuttles, jets and small ships flying around and about following an invisible road and then there was the ground itself, divided into a walk way and then driving section buzzed with busy robots who talked, chatted and even cursed at each other. 

She then turned back to Beamer, who had welcomed her to her planet and continued to watch the female Captain. Movement at the corner of her eye drew in the attention to three approaching robots, males, she could identify by their lack of feminine curve and their bulk. Aside from not having any hair or clothing, Shepard noted that telling the genders apart was much easier than she thought it would be. But given the fact that both male and female robot had been introduced to her. 

She stopped her train of thought when the flashy white, blue and red mech with the numbers ‘38’ on its chest approached Beamer, the two bots beside him looking much like officers or guards with their white and black paint, she knew that something was about to go downhill.

Then, with a closer look around, she noticed the fact that all the robots on the Galvantis were being escorted into a building, more guards ushering them into the room, and Onslaught, the large mech that followed Beamer like a shadow, was cursing up a storm and demanding he speak with officials. Beamer had seemed to notice and drew up to her impressive height, standing just taller than the white mech and puffing up her armour, her wings going rigid and optics narrowing in suspicion. 

The white mech glanced at Shepard and her squad, taking in their condition and then turning back to Beamer. “Under New Cyberton law, we have to take you in to reinstate you into Cybertron data-banks and remove all signs of faction alliance. Your crew will be cleared in three hours times, but you will be questioned on your objective.” Suddenly, his face dropped his serious look and he smirked, “Make this easy on yourself, come with us peacefully and it will be over in a few hours. Your humans will be taken to the tourist section of Iacon and can make their way from there.”

Raising a brow at his statement, Beamer crossed her arms and let her armour drop to its normal ‘un-puffed’ look. “They aren’t my humans, they just know of the people that stole a Relic and an offlined Cybertronian.”

This seemed to be news the mech wasn’t expecting and he glanced at Shepard. “Who was it?”

“Cerberus.” Shepard’s one worded answer was enough to garter a tense face. 

“By the Pit! Contact Shockwave and tell him we’re bringing in some people.” He said to one officer and then turned his attention back to Beamer and Shepard. “Okay, forget the reinstatement, come with me and that will be completed while you tell Shockwave everything you know about Cerberus.”

Shepard stepped on the offered palm of Beamer and grabbed onto the thumb to stabilize herself. Mordin followed without a second glance and Garrus looked more hesitant than last time about riding along with the robot. Once they were all on, they walked down the path leading towards the major streets and Shepard found herself tightening the hold she had on the thumb marginally when Beamer started to manoeuvre her body to dodge on coming mechs and femmes but also trying her hold her palms still. 

Hissing when a passing femme clipped her wing, she glanced down at Shepard, Mordin and Garrus and frowned before calling out to one of the mechs they were following with a series of clicks, whirs and tweets that sounded so very foreign to their ears. Finally, the black and white mech turned and offered a palm to Garrus, who, reluctant to travel on a different mech did so after throwing Shepard a glance that promised one hell of a debate when they got back on ship. 

Once on the mech, Beamer transferred Mordin onto her other palm and raised them to her shoulders, casting them a look that told them not to take too long. Clambering onto Beamer’s shoulders, Shepard sat down and leaned against the wing for support, feeling much more relaxed at this height where she could see everything than at the height of Beamer’s chest were the only thing she could see was the incoming chests and arms of others. 

Smokescreen finally turned into a building and Beamer followed and when they entered, Shepard was greeted with the sight of many different species walking around on raised platforms and the ground, being carefully avoided by the tall bots who walked the same ground. Then, upon seeing bots the size of humans, she wondered if they came in all different sizes as well. 

They arrived by a door that hissed open to greet them and stepped into lab room that was filled with various amount of tools, workbenches, equipment and scrap of metal. Beside on of the three consoles stood a tall purple mech, one arm a cannon and when he turned, Shepard saw that his face was made up of one giant optic. Much like a geth, except his optic narrowed and seemed to portray his agitation at the news he was told. 

He gestured to one of the clear workbenches and Beamer shook her head, clicking again at the black and white mech and taking Garrus from him, holding him securely in her open flat hands. 

“I assume my crew have been assigned rooms or accommodation until they can find a way to get one themselves?” Beamer broke the silence and Smokescreen answered easily. 

“Yeah, they’re staying at a facility for newly arrived bots, or N.A.B Rooms. There they can find jobs and start saving creds.”

Nodding, Beamer turned back to Shockwave, who stood passively before her. Expecting a mechanical, emotionless voices, Shepard hid her surprise when he addressed Beamer. “Captain Beamer, Second Class Seeker, no trine and an un-bonded femme. If Starscream were still here, you would have been offered to him as a Seeker Ambassador… and mate.”

Raising a brow at this, Beamer snorted. “I declined his offer then, and I will decline it now. Say, what happened to that pit-spawn while I was gone?”

Shockwave’s optic dulled a moment before brightening again and he tipped his opticed head to the side. “Destroyed and devoured by Predacons.”

Wincing at that Beamer replied, “I’m half inclined to feel something for that poor fool, but the trouble he caused on Cybertron…” She stopped her current train of thought and returned to business. “A Cybertronian relic and mech was taken by a group of Cerberus troops. It seems that our time spent in stasis had offered them the apt opportunity to build a lab around our ship and enter to take what they needed.”

Shockwave turned to a console and pulled up the information of the Galvantis, breaking apart the ships schematics until he reached the room that housed the deceased warrior and relic. “They reached the middle of the ship without running into any problems. Were your defence systems not online?”

Beamer scowled, “My ships record states that three failed attempts occurred before they managed to override the defence system. Bodies of Cerberus troops were found in my room, suggesting that they went after a live bot before realizing that it would be too difficult and instead took Devastator.”

“A logical plan on the humans part, yet foolish as Devastator was installed with numerous disrupters and processor updates.” Shockwave tapped away at his console before glancing back at them. “With time, I can reverse the system roles to track Devastator’s location. That is, if they are keeping the body and relic in the same location.”

Shepard held back a snort, “As stupid as Cerberus is, they won’t keep two completely alien devices in the same lab.”

Shockwave acknowledged that and turned to Smokescreen, “Suggested action that you contact Soundwave and Red Alert, have them looking out for any disruptors that may come online infrequently. If the humans were to research Devastator, they would no doubt attempt to reactivate some of his systems.”

Nodding, Smokescreen beckoned for the black and white mech to follow, leaving Beamer with Shockwave in the lab. He turned to observe the femme and scanned her frame with his superior medical grade scanners, taking note that all her systems were fine apart from her low energon levels, which was normal for someone coming out of stasis without a steady energon ration. He noticed the human, Salarian and Turian companion and suddenly remembered that his own Salarian assistant was running late on delivering the files he requested. Pushing that knowledge aside he gestured for Beamer to step closer and then her companions. 

“You require a systems update and if the situation deems it so, an installation of a Size-Regulator unit.”

“A what?” Beamer asked, halfway through putting Mordin down before she froze and snapped her gaze to Shockwave, only continuing her task when Mordin cleared his throat and she dropped him off, Shepard joining a moment later.

“A Size-Regulator allows for you to shrink your size to a proportion you request it. You may have noticed a few regulated mechs and femmes walking around. With this device, it makes getting in out of enclosed areas easier and decreases the risk of a building collapsing.”

Nodding hesitantly, Beamer laid down on the berth Shockwave had cleared and let him open the slot on her wrist to plug in a cable to that port and she relaxed as she let the downloads commence, immediately feeling the lessening strain on her processor when her systems finally caught up to the new ones of this period. Glancing to the side as half the download finished sounded in her processor and Shockwave console, she noticed Mordin, the lanky orange and white toned organic attempting to peer around Shockwave’s bulk to see what was happening. 

Grinning, she offered a palm to the strange organic and nodded as he climbed on and she balanced him as she moved him over her chest and into her other palm and then towards Shockwave’s console, wincing as the cable was jolted. Mordin observed the symbols flying across the screen in a steady scroll downwards and in the corner of the screen he noticed the same process being repeated but on a smaller scale in a language he recognized. 

“Salarian script, assume you have a salarian scientist?”

Shockwave looked down at the salarian standing on his console and nodded, “Jerver is my assistant. Though he is late in his arrival today.”

Mordin nodded and continued to read the many words scrolling down, many of which he didn’t understand the context off as the alien system was completely new to him, but words such as ‘security’, ‘firewall’ and ‘links’ gave him a brief look into what made up the Cybertronian’s before him. 

“Salarian?” Came Beamer’s voice from behind them and Shockwave and Mordin turned. “What’s a ‘salarian’?”

“Mordin is a salarian. Just like I’m human and Garrus is a turian.” Shepard answered for them all, not wanting to exactly listen to a description of just what a salarian was. 

Beamer nodded, “Ah, well that makes it easier for me. The closest I got to those two was avian and amphibian.”

Shepard smirked, “The characteristics are similar. Except Garrus doesn’t have any feathers’.”

Snorting, Beamer glanced at them and slowly sat up when Shockwave removed the cable and closed the port. “Hmm, yes. Bright red feathers would have clashed too much with his blue markings.”

Garrus was at a loss, not able to defend himself properly before the femme starting laughing finally breaking out of her serious shell but not able to snark in on the fun left him empty for words. But, Smokescreen had already returned and addressed them all. “Ultra Magnus wants to talk to Shepard and her friends.”

Having not left Beamer’s side in this world since they entered, Shepard was reluctant to leave the only bot they knew here, aside from Onslaught, but he wasn’t here with them. She nodded and climbed onto the offered hand again and let the mech carry them out of the room and towards Ultra Magnus, who sounded just as important as his name made him sound.

And important he looked, regal blue and gold with broad shoulders and tall frame, he easily towered over most of the other male robots in the room, save for a few handful. His voice easily commanded the mechs around him and Sheperd could easily tell that this mech would lead an army successfully through any battle. 

“Ah, Commander Sheperd. I have heard of your person.” And then he met her gaze, turning his full attention to her form.


End file.
